The Volcano called Skapta Jokul, in Iceland, in the year 1794, sent out two great streams, one of which was 50 miles in length, from 10 to 15 in breadth, and the ordinary depth about 100 feet, but in some deep valleys it was more than 500 feet. The other was forty miles long, seven wide on the average, and about the same depth as the first.
These streams were not cold in the year 1805, eleven years after they had issued from the earth, so that you may judge how long the hardened lava keeps in the heat.
During the eruption in which this immense mass of melted matter was thrown out, twenty villages were destroyed, more than nine thousand persons killed, and an immense number of cattle.
The vapour which rises at first in immense clouds, when the eruption slackens, or when it gets out of the reach of the heat, condenses, and mingled with the dust thrown up with it, forms mud, which rushes in torrents down the mountain. These streams of mud are called alluvions, and are very much more dreaded by the inhabitants than the lava streams, because they are so much quicker in their movement.
It was one of these, and not a stream of lava which enveloped the Roman City Pompeii; and which entered the modern town of Torre del Greco, and so raised the ground that the lower rooms of the houses were converted into cellars, and the people were obliged to make the street doors on what had before been the second story.
THE GREAT VOLCANO KIRAUEA, IN THE ISLAND OF HAWAII.
There is a very remarkable Volcano in the Island of Hawaii, where Captain Cook was killed.
The crater, instead of being at the top of a mountain like those of most other Volcanoes, is a large plain, seven miles in circumference, sunk below the surface of the surrounding country, and walled in by rugged cliffs more than seven hundred feet high.
On this plain there are fifty-one conical hillocks, which are almost constantly sending out vapour and lava, and red hot stones. The surrounding banks consist entirely of sulphur and lava.
The islanders, before they were taught the truths of Christianity, believed it to be the abode of their deities, the chief of whom they call Pelé, and to her, they say, that everything which grows near the Volcano is sacred. When some missionaries were going to visit it, and plucked some juicy berries from the shrubs that grew there to quench their thirst, the native guides begged them to desist till they had made an offering to Pelé. When they got to the edge of the crater, they threw some of the berries in, and said, "Pelé, here are your berries, and I am now going to eat some." They then ate fast enough, and were willing that the missionaries should do the same.